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I just read this on a website, noting it originally came from 'Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner' by Scott Cunningham.

Instead of 'An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Wilt', which can be interpreted in a variety of ways, what about taking on "Destroy not life save it be to preserve your own."?

Thoughts?

Do witches really need a moral mantra? The practice of witchcraft can exalt you to the most sublime beauty your mind can touch or chain you to your most painful recollections. Death is a part of life, a gift to be both given and accepted. The gift of death is the sacrafice of all you blindly attach your personality to in exchange for rebirth in a new paradigm. Or not. All things can be interpreted in any way you see fit. I think to see the destruction of life or Death as only the loss of bodily form is far too limiting on the archetypal power within mythology that death holds for the cunning witch.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand, And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand , And Eternity in an hour. - Big Poppa Blake

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I am a firm believer in weighing consequences, and then choosing one's own path. It's a matter of karma. Not all good actions result in good consequences. A man who defends his family "too well" can in fact end up in jail, despite most rational people having agreed with that man.

A man who blows up a building with a known serial killer in it took out a large danger... but the action itself is not necessarily a good thing.

If I had to pick a word for my beliefs on the ethics of magic in everyday life... I would say viking. If I'm willing to hit you with a large stick, then why not something else?

Now this is the Law of the Jungle - as old and as true as the Sky. And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. ~ Rudyard Kipling

Interesting responses. I, too, do not subscribe to 'An Ye Harm None' - I just thought it was an interesting topic of discussion. Because, let's face it, you can't go through life without harming nothing. Vegetables arguably still feel pain, so even if you are a complete vegan you're still harming plants.

I believe in a karmic law of some description - I believe in the threefold law but not that it will come back 'three times as bad or three times as good' but that it will come back to affect me in three different ways - mind, body and spirit. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - why should Wiccans be any different?

Interesting responses. I, too, do not subscribe to 'An Ye Harm None' - I just thought it was an interesting topic of discussion. Because, let's face it, you can't go through life without harming nothing. Vegetables arguably still feel pain, so even if you are a complete vegan you're still harming plants.

I believe in a karmic law of some description - I believe in the threefold law but not that it will come back 'three times as bad or three times as good' but that it will come back to affect me in three different ways - mind, body and spirit. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - why should Wiccans be any different?

Because they aren't? You keep re-quoted "an ye harm none" but you are missing the "do what thou wilt" which basically means- be aware of your actions, for everything you do has a reaction/consequence. It's not to tell people not to hurt others, but to tell people to be mindful of their actions.

Because they aren't? You keep re-quoted "an ye harm none" but you are missing the "do what thou wilt" which basically means- be aware of your actions, for everything you do has a reaction/consequence. It's not to tell people not to hurt others, but to tell people to be mindful of their actions.

I keep quoting 'An Ye Harm None' as a shortened version of the full passage - to type it all out every time would be tiring and I'm lazy :P

People have made adaptions, like the the Lycian tradition's,
"An it harm none, do as you will. An it cause harm, do as you must."

...however there shouldn't be a need to change anything, because in Wicca it is merely a Rede, a loose moral code meant for personal interpretation. It doesn't say one must not harm, but to only be mindful.